Square Enix’s 2018 hit Octopath Traveler sold over 3 million copies worldwide, but never made it to PlayStation. Now, the series heads to PS5 and PS4 for the first time with Octopath Traveler II. Still with the striking HD-2D graphics of the first game, the sequel takes what its predecessor did and builds on it, creating a unique gaming experience which will leave you wanting more. It’s a completely standalone game as well, so there’s no need to power through the first title.
At the tail end of 2022, I really enjoyed keeping up with SPYxFAMILY and Chainsaw Man as it aired. I’ve got a love/hate relationship with watching seasonal shows, as I have a tendency to take on too many that I then can’t keep up, and I can’t manage to binge anything alongside.
You’d think that I would learn from that, but no. I haven’t, and there was just so many shows that looked really cool, so I couldn’t resist!
I’ve watched at least the first episode of each of these shows, and they’re making up my Winter 2023 roster. Here are my initial thoughts!
Tokyo Revengers Season 2
Tokyo Revengers has fast become one of my favourite anime. I love the whole concept of it, from the time travel to the gang wars, and the characters are really fun and well-written. I’m so happy we haven’t had to wait long for Tokyo Revengers season 2, and even more happy that things just jump straight into the action. There’s no recapping, no rehashing of the story, it’s just straight on with things. I’m so excited to see where the story goes this season, it seems like it’s going to be an eventful one!
Buddy Daddies
I’ve seen Buddy Daddies hailed on Twitter as ‘the gay SPYxFAMILY’, and whilst there are similarities, it’s a lot more than that. The two protagonists, Kazuki and Rei, are roommates who are the antithesis of each other. Whilst Kazuki is warm and outgoing, Rei is an introvert, preferring the company of cats and games than real people. It’s a really interesting dynamic, that though outplayed has a fresh perspective in Buddy Daddies as Kazuki and Rei are contract killers, working together as a duo to take out their hits. In this first episode, we see Kazuki and Rei taking out a contract who is a mafia boss specialising in human trafficking. Whilst on the job, Kazuki meets Miri, a little girl who is searching for her father, who is… you guessed it, the mafia boss he is there to kill. After taking out the hit, Kazuki tells Miri he is her father, setting up the whole series for a really cute family dynamic. I’m really excited to see where Buddy Daddies goes and how the trio develop.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War
As a massive fan of the Legend of Heroes games, I was really excited for this anime this season. I wouldn’t say I’m let down, necessarily, but I may have overhyped it in my mind because of my love for the games. Giving an alternative perspective to the conflict seen in the games, the premise of the show is an interesting one. Whilst the story feels quite compelling on first watch, and I’m interested to see where it goes, the show itself feels let down by the animation. Scenes feel a bit choppy, and some characters are given better treatment than others which is indicative of how important they are in terms of the show but it means that it lacks cohesion as a result. I’ll still keep watching due to my love of the Legends of Heroes series as a whole, but it won’t be the show I rush to watch every week.
The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague
This is probably the show I’m least excited about at the moment. The concept seems really cool – the descendant of a yokai is an office worker, and when he gets emotional he loses control of his ice-powers. There’s also a normal human love interest, and what seems like a pretty colourful supporting cast. My worry is, as with all slice-of-life anime, that not a lot will happen and it’s just going to feel a bit flat, but I’ll give it a chance and see how it goes!
Bungo Stray Dogs Season 4
Another returning show this season, and I’m so excited to have Bungo Stray Dogs back. It really is one of my favourite shows, and imagine my shock, my joy, my excitement when the main focus of the season seems to be my (second) best boy Rampo-san. I was worried I had forgotten everything that happened in the prior season of Bungo Stray Dogs before I started watching, but it seems like it doesn’t really matter at the moment due to the season starting in the past. I can’t wait to learn more about Rampo-san, and hopefully remember things about the last season.
Well, that’s all I’m watching this season, along with continuing Blue Lock and IDOLiSH7, and trying to binge a few things. What are you watching this season? Anything you’d recommend?
2022 wasn’t a great year for me and the challenges. I set my goals way too high, with too many categories and then achieved not a lot. It’s always disheartening when you don’t reach your goals, even if they’re non-consequential like these challenges are, but even so it’s meant to be fun! I don’t want to be here writing every month that I didn’t get anything done!
That being said, for 2023 I’m going to change it up and do quarterly updates. I’ve never been great at monthly updates, I don’t think a year has gone by since I started doing the challenges where I’ve managed to stick to it, so I think quarterly will be a great change and will allow me to focus on writing other content for the blog – something I threaten every year, but which hasn’t quite materialised yet.
So, with this in mind, let’s see what I’ve decided to focus on this year.
Watch 25 anime
This is the prime candidate for things I overpromise on. I’m not sure I’ve ever hit an anime watching target. 25 seems quite reasonable – 2 shows a month brings me to 24, but 24 seemed like a weird total so I rounded it up. I think this is doable, but I’ve said that before and been very wrong, so we’ll see.
Watch 25 anime movies
Same logic as before, this works out at around 2 movies per month. I can do that, that’s easy. Right?
Watch 30 films
It’s easier to watch a non-subtitled film than a subtitled one, hence the increase in total numbers for this one. Just under 3 a month. Maybe I’ll start a Friday film night.
Clear 15 games from the PlayStation backlog
I joked recently that I don’t play games, I collect them, but there’s probably more truth in that statement than I’d like. I really want to focus on clearing down my backlog. I have so many games I’ve heard are fantastic, but they’re sitting on my (digital and physical) shelf unplayed. If anything, it’s a waste of money, so it’s time to change this! I’m including PS Vita, PS4 and PS5 for this challenge, so 15 should be a doddle.
Clear 12 games from the Switch backlog
Generally, I don’t play my Switch as often as my PlayStation, but I want to change that. 12 games seems reasonable – one a month!
Get 12 platinum trophies
At my core I think I’ll always be a trophy hunter to some extent. Whilst I’ve given up on shovelware games, I don’t want to abandon it altogether. My focus on clearing my backlogs means I’ll have less time for trophy hunting but I’m certain there’ll be some crossover, so I’ve set the target at a pretty conservative 1 platinum a month.
Read 20 manga series
Another thing I always buy and never consume – manga. I have a Shonen Jump app subscription, going wasted. I want to read 20 complete series this year. I’ll probably start some ongoing series, but they won’t count for this target unless it’s a complete series!
Read 12 books
I think I said in my 2022 wrap-up that I want to set myself some better reading habits by reading a little before bed each night. With my wanting to also read manga more frequently, I’m not stupid enough to think I’ll do a tonne of ‘normal’ reading on top of that, so I think 1 book a month sounds decent.
I think this seems like a reasonable goal for all of these challenges. I have a lot of personal goals I want to work on as well, so I think these relatively low numbers will leave me time to ficus on them, and there’s enough variety in the topics that I won’t get bored in trying to achieve them as a collective. What do you think about my 2023 challenges? As always, follow me on Twitter and see my progress on the hashtag #cs2023challenges.
I sure fell off the challenge update wagon for a bit there. I haven’t done a progress update since July, so that must definitely mean that all of my numbers are going to jump up for the end of year recap, right?! Well… not exactly.
Platinum 15 games
2022 end total: 10
Focusing less on shovelware games in 2022 and more on games I actually wanted to play meant that I didn’t quite hit my goal for platinum games. I’m not even mad about it. I played some really fun games this year, and went back and cleared up some games I’d started but not 100% completed, as well as some games I’d bought a long time ago but hadn’t even started.
Here’s my list of platinum trophies for 2022:
Get the platinum in Persona 4 Golden
As you can see above, I finally did it! I got the Persona 4 Golden platinum! It took me a really long time, and I didn’t do it in the most straightforward way possible, but I got there in the end which is the most important thing. It’s definitely still one of my most favourite games, if not coming out at the top of that list. I’m ready for the console version to come out at the end of January, and I’ve definitely got a roadmap in mind to getting the platinum more quickly than I did the Vita version!
Watch 30 anime
2022 end total: 10
A really poor effort for me and anime this year. I promise I am an anime fan, don’t take my figures away! I seem to have a problem where I’ll sit down and promise myself I’m going to watch something and then before I know it, it’s three hours later and I’ve done nothing (see also: physical Switch backlog). It’s something I really want to work on for 2023, because I just want to be productive, you know? I didn’t finish my first anime series until March and the next one wasn’t until May, what’s that about? Things have to, and will, change! Mark my words!
That being said, here’s what I watch this year:
Watch 30 films
2022 end total: 17
I used to watch so many films that it wasn’t unheard of for me to go to the cinema and watch 4 films in a day. Those were the days I had an Unlimited pass, of course, which I don’t any more. I do miss going to the cinema, but my nearest decent one is 30 minutes away which seems like a real effort. I know in the days of streaming I have an unlimited catalogue at my fingertips, but even so, I struggle to watch a film. There’s perhaps too much choice? I’m not sure what the reason is. This is all a really long way of saying I didn’t watch 30 films, I only just hit a little over the halfway mark.
Here’s what I did manage to watch:
Watch 30 anime films
2022 end total: 2
This is honestly abysmal, and not even deserving of a proper list. I watched The Garden of Words and Jujutsu Kaisen 0. I don’t even know what happened here, apart from a whole lot of nothing.
Read 18 books
2022 end total: 9
I got halfway there, which isn’t awful but it’s certainly not great. I was so confident in my reading challenges that I bought myself a Kindle towards the beginning of the year, and I’m pretty sure I still have an Unlimited account for Amazon Books which is honestly a huge waste at this point. I want to start getting into better reading habits and reading a few chapters of something every night before bed, so we’ll see how that goes.
Here’s what I read in 2022:
Clear physical Switch and Vita backlogs
I absolutely did not even get anywhere close to this.
Your teenage years are undoubtedly some of the hardest years of your life. Raging hormones, school, navigating romance for the first time, aliens threatening to destroy your home and family… Now, imagine all of that in a timeloop that you’re destined to repeat over and over, and you have I Was A Teenage Exocolonist.
The third year of Anime August means I can call this a regular feature, right? Looking back over my previous years, I have a habit of being overly ambitious with how much anime I’m going to watch over the month – much like my targets for the yearly challenges, maybe I need a big dose of realism next year?
This year I’m going to pick 10 series and 10 movies to watch and work my way through the lists, I think that will be manageable. As always, I’m going to say I’m going to review the things I’ve watched, but will I? Who knows.
Here are my lists!
Series:
Movies:
I think these lists feel quite varied, and I’m looking forward to cracking on!
Somehow I missed the June update, so you’d think there’d be a lot of progress to report on, right? Wrong.
Platinum 15 games
July end total: 4
In the last couple of months I’ve got the platinum in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and When The Past Was Around. Both very different games but both very fun and worth playing. I feel like this total is a bit light for the challenges but I’m avoiding the ‘easy platinum’ games and trying to focus on stuff I actually want to play. I think I’ll make at least double digits this year, I have a few games I’ve started and I want to clean up on as well as stuff in the backlog.
Get the platinum in Persona 4 Golden
So, I didn’t do this in July as previously planned but now the PS4/PS5 release is scheduled for the end of the year I want to get it done before that comes out so I’m going to aim to do an in-game month every couple of days.
Watch 30 anime
July end total: 4
In June I watched Sasaki and Miyano, which I really loved. I didn’t want anything in July but August is just around the corner so I’m hoping my numbers will boost!
Watch 30 films
July end total: 14
I added Thor: Love and Thunder and Murder Mystery to my totals across the June and July. I really enjoyed Thor, though perhaps I might be the only person in the world who did. Murder Mystery was fine.
Watch 30 anime films
July end total: 2
Man, just awful here. Hoping to boost this in Anime August!
Read 18 books
July end total: 9
Finally managed to read Wranglestone, which I’ve been reading since March so hopefully now I can move onto things that don’t take me 4 months to read.
Clear physical Switch and Vita backlogs
Um… Does buying more games and adding to the backlog count? No? Oh…
April is a super busy month for me generally speaking – birthday month and all of that, so I didn’t get much progress on the challenges hence no update post. May felt significantly better, so let’s see if it was.
Platinum 15 games
May end total: 2
Games have taken a bit of a backseat lately, I have been playing stuff but just not trying for platinum’s and mostly on my Switch honestly. I haven’t added anything to my challenge for platinum trophies, boo!
Get the platinum in Persona 4 Golden
As previously mentioned, I’m just one trophy off on this one – unfortunately I need to pretty much do an entire playthrough to get to level 90 to get it. I don’t know why but I have in my head that I’m going to do it in July, so time will tell.
Watch 30 anime
May end total: 3
I watched two anime in May, woohoo! I finally finished Tokyo Revengers and also added My Dress Up Darling to the list. I have a few on the go at the moment so I’m hoping to add a few more this month.
Watch 30 films
May end total: 12
In May I watched Joker, Senior Year, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Some were definitely better than others.
Watch 30 anime films
May end total: 2
I’ve been equally as rubbish with anime movies as I have with watching anime series, and I didn’t add any in May.
Read 18 books
May end total: 8
I think I’m still ahead of schedule on my book reading, but I haven’t actually read anything since March when I did the 24 hour readathon, shameful!
Clear physical Switch and Vita backlogs
The less said the better, honestly.
Landing itself somewhere between a twin-stick shooter and a rhythm game, Soundfall feels like it’s not really doing one or other of these particularly successfully. Saved by an incredible soundtrack, Soundfall has the potential to be a really incredible game with an exciting concept, but is let down by repetitive gameplay and a weak story.
Originally released on PC in 2019 for the original game’s fifth anniversary, the acclaimed survival game This War Of Mine: Final Cut has been repackaged in a for new-gen consoles. Hitting PS5s with remastered versions of the original and DLC locations, This War of Mine gives a harrowing and to the point view of war from the perspective of civilians trying to survive.
Set in the fictional city of Pogoren in the equally fictional Graznavia, This War of Mine has two cycles within which players must navigate a cast of characters. During the day, the characters will be at their shelter, and activities are based around daily survival: making improvements to the shelter, ensuring everyone is fed — you can even teach children basic survival skills. You can also craft items ready for trading with travelling tradesmen or people you may bump into while scavenging yourself. At night, the characters are split up – one person can go scavenging in local areas to find supplies, or you can have them stay home and guard the shelter from other scavengers or rest for the next day.
Read my full review at Push Square.
Culture Shack 